Calendar for August 16th, 2014

Bennington Battle Day (Vt.)

In 1777 British general John Burgoyne sent 700 men to Bennington, Vermont, where 2,600 colonial troops were guarding a storehouse containing war supplies. American general John Stark met the British; killed their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum; and killed or imprisoned nearly all the British soldiers. The Bennington battle led to the British surrender at Saratoga, New York, in October.

1780s

1820s

1840s

1841: U.S. President John Tyler vetoed a bill calling for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States

Born 1845: Gabriel Lippmann (physicist)

1850s

1858: U.S. President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria exchanged greetings by telegraph to celebrate the laying of the transatlantic cable

1860s

1861: Trade between Union and Confederate states prohibited

1890s

Died 1899: Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (chemist)

1910s

Born 1913: Menachem Begin (Prime Minister of Israel)

1916: U.S./Canadian Migratory Bird Treaty signed

1919: In a pool at Manhattan Beach, New York, Ethelda Bleibtrey swam against Fanny Durack of Australia, winning the race and a place on the United States Olympic team for the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp, Belgium. She and her teammates were the first American women to swim in the Olympics.

1940s

Born 1946: Lesley Ann Warren (actress)

Died 1948: Babe Ruth (baseball player)

Died 1949: Margaret Mitchell (author)

1950s

1951: First Delaware Memorial bridge opened

1954: Volume 1, Issue 1 of Sports Illustrated published

Born 1958: Angela Bassett (actress)

Born 1958: Madonna (singer)

1960s

Born 1960: Timothy Hutton (actor)

Born 1963: Steve Carell (actor)

1970s

Died 1977: Elvis Presley (singer & actor)

1980s

Born 1980: Vanessa Carlton (singer)

1982: Northern hogsucker weighed in at one pound fifteen ounces, making Minnesota state fishing record